Female Athlete of the Year: Diana Matheson

While we often give these awards to athletes who have made an impact on a school, Ivy League or even national level, our 2008 Women’s Athlete of the Year — senior midfielder Diana Matheson of the women’s soccer team — has already made her presence known on the international stage.

First consider her performance at Princeton. Though Matheson only started 10 of Princeton’s 17 games last fall, she led the team with six goals and seven assists. In a 5-1 win over Rutgers on Oct. 2, she recorded a school single-game record four assists. In the process, she broke Princeton’s all-time assist record of 20, a record she extended to 26 by the end of the season. She scored a point in seven-straight games upon rejoining the team this season. Matheson is the only Princeton soccer player to have scored 20 goals and 20 assists in her career.

Matheson was named 2007 Ivy League Player of the Year and was named first team All-Ivy for the fourth time in her career. She is fourth at Princeton all-time in points, despite missing a number of games in each of her four seasons. On the field she was unmatched in her skill, pace and feel for the game, sometimes holding off two or three defenders to score or assist a goal.

But why, you might ask, did she miss those games? Despite just turning 24, she has already made 77 appearances and scored three goals for the Canadian national soccer team, ranked ninth in the world. Matheson played for Canada in the 2007 FIFA Women’s World Cup in China, where she started all three games. She recently started all four games in the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football Olympic Qualifying Tournament, where Canada qualified along with Team USA to play in the upcoming Beijing Olympics.

For her performances here and abroad, Diana Matheson is the 2008 Daily Princetonian Women’s Athlete of the Year.